Hi, Euroleague fans. It's a great time of year for basketball and I'm glad to have this opportunity to share with you my thoughts as we get ready for the Final Four. Let me start by telling you a little bit about myself. My name is Alex Garcia and I'm from Brazil. I'm really a quiet guy who works hard at what I do every day. I'm a team player and I love to help my teammates win. Off the court, I'm a family guy.

I've been playing basketball for 15 years. Soccer is the most popular sport in Brazil and I also played soccer as a boy, but my older brother played basketball. When I was in school, he'd invite me to come see him play and it was a lot of fun, so I started to play too. I learned from him and later began to play with his friends. That's also how I developed my style. I saw from the beginning that everybody wanted to have the ball, shoot a lot and score 30 points. So I decided that I would find a way to play well differently. I knew that if I stopped my man from scoring, it is just as important to winning. Defense is my power. I like to play defense; I like to help my teammates on defense. Whatever team we play against, I want to guard their best player and stop him. That's my job and that's what I like to do.

This Final Four is very special for Brazil, because two Brazilians are playing in the Final Four: Myself and Tiago Splitter of Tau Ceramica. Tiago is a good friend of mine....